Unfortunately for many struggling Idaho families, the cost of hearing aides, cochlear implant, and therapies can run into the thousands of dollars, and insurance currently either does not cover or does not entirely cover the cost associated with these. This leaves many kiddos attending our schools without the supports they need. Continue reading →

The major development of 2015, of course, related to the contentious tiered licensure and career ladder legislation designed to increase teacher pay while simultaneously deleting certain teacher protections in compromise for the pay bump.

While the tiered licensure plan fell through due to the nearly lockstep opposition of stakeholders, many of its components were instead simply shifted to the career ladder bill that ultimately passed. As predicted, many measures seen potentially retaliatory to teachers such as the continued emphasis in utilizing the Danielson Model for teachers of all types (including Special Education, English Language Learners, Academy/At-Risk Teachers, etc) and Value Added Measures (VAM) are cemented under the law in determining a teacher’s rating.

It’s a safe bet to say Sen. Crapo and I didn’t see eye to eye on most things discussed during the Town Hall meeting in Parma today. However, we did share ample common ground regarding what we consider to be federal overreach of State’s education policies, particularly regarding the federal mandate to assess students annually.

Senator Crapo proposed some terrific legislation back in January this year that would have made a tremendous difference for Idaho’s students titled the Local Leadership Education Act with it’s stated purpose as:

To prohibit the Federal Government from mandating, incentivizing, or coercing States to adopt the Common Core State Standards or any other specific academic standards, instructional content, curricula, assessments, or programs of instruction.

Unfortunately, the upcoming vote on reauthorizing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) now known as the Every Child Achieves Act largely leaves in place almost all the elements his own legislation in January was designed to combat, namely the onerous provision of administering an annual standardized test to the bulk of Idaho’s students; a requirement that takes away from instruction, closes computer labs, causes tears for students and teachers alike, and allows private companies like Pearson to pocket billions at the expense of schools and students.

And while I certainly cannot disagree with Sen. Crapo when he stated that the new legislation is much less bitter than NCLB, that is besides the point. We aren’t trying to give our students and children a less bitter education policy; rather, we are trying to give them excellent education policy that actually improves their outcomes.

Sen. Crapo indicated that he was still considering how he feels; however, there will be a vote cast next week on the Senate floor. He needs to hear from you either in person or phone on why this renewal vote on NCLB is bad news for schools and teachers before he is asked to cast his vote next week!

Click on my previous blog entry to see dates and locations Sen. Crapo will be in Idaho during this week as well as contact information and talking points when addressing the topic with the Senator.

Please take an hour of your time to attend one of his town halls in person to advocate for Idaho’s students on why an NCLB renewal without significant changes is bad news for Idaho’s kiddos and America’s children.

Sen. Mike Crap will be holding Town Hall style meetings across Idaho this week. That makes this week an excellent opportunity to let Sen. Crapo know that Idahoans continue to be opposed to the outrageous monstrosity that the Standardized testing mandate has caused under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as well as an opportunity to stop this testing insanity by encouraging him to vote no on the upcoming NCLB renewal known as the Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177).

See, as currently written, the Every Child Achieves Act keeps in place the single largest flaw of NCLB: Using a single annual standardized test score in determining which states are “succeeding” and which are “failing.”

US Secreatary of Education Arne Duncan

Such policy has a multitude of negative implications witnessed through NCLB’s abject failure including the current policy of a connecting state compliance of annual testing to the federal money spigot administered by the US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

This relationship results in a significant ability for DC to control schools through the use of awarding funds only if schools are in compliance with certain benchmarks, of which the sacred cow of annual standardized testing is the cornerstone. Through this financial mechanism, Idaho and its districts are essentially tied to follow federal directives including the implementation of Common Core State Standards and implement the annual testing mechanism to assess these standards through the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.

While assessment, in itself, can certainly have positive implications, in this case the consequences of these tests have been disastrous. No Child Left Behind requires that all students demonstrate 100% proficiency in reading and math; an outcome (while well intended) was doomed to fail from the start.

The consequence of not having 100% proficiency means that states must submit to a waiver–a waiver whose conditions are set by the Secretary of Education (Arne Duncan)– not the US legislature. The current conditions of that waiver requires states to submit to a federal set of standards, submit to an annual examination assessing student proficiency of those standards, as well as other conditions.

This results in Idaho, and its independent districts, giving up local control; control never meant to be in the hands of the federal government, let alone a single appointed Secretary under the Executive.

For Pearson and other standardized test makers such a policy has been a windfall: As long as states have to test annually, and as long as it is a forgone conclusion that the benchmark will never be met, corporate profit shares will only continue to increase in valuation.

According to Forbes, annual testing in k-12 has become a 2.5 billion dollar industry, of which Pearson is the foremost leader according to the most recent data available. Keep in mind that Pearson in particular has a stellar track record in Idaho for designing both the State’s longitudinal data management system (ISEE) and Instructional Data management system (SchoolNet) at a combined 73 million dollars which were so fraught with dysfunction that literal boatloads of money and years of mismanagement later, Pearson left Idaho with a pipsqueak announcement that it had done all for the systems that it could (translation: we screwed up) and that they would no longer be working on the system (translation: we’re taking your money and getting out of this state).

Yet, for schools, the consequences of using the standardized test scores as the single indicator have been disastrous. This is particularly for schools working with minority and at risk populations such as low income, English language learners, migrant families, and special education students. These students have a variety of factors completely outside the control of the school and teachers that make them especially prone to not necessarily having stellar test scores, but a failing test score carries the same result, regardless of the population of students.

Unfortunately, the re-authorization of NCLB through the Every Child Achieves Act leaves the lunacy of heavy handed standardized test score consequences in place. Let’s make sure our federal representative, Sen. Mike Crapo, knows that this is a raw deal for not only Idahoans, but all of America’s students.

That is excellent news because it reveals that Sen. Crapo understands the value of state and local control when it comes the education of students in Idaho. Let’s make sure he knows he has our support in voting no on the Every Child Achieves Act (S 1177) until the annual testing provision is eliminated.

As I wrote back in January when Crapo announced the bill to end coercing states into adopting CCSS and annual testing:

Since No Child left Behind was enacted, we have witnessed the results of utilizing standardized tests as both carrot and stick.

A carrot through Secretary Duncan’s emphasizes of giving dollars to schools willing to embrace common core and high stakes testing. The result has been a disaster. Using New York State as an example, that approach has resulted in only 30% of students being labeled as “proficient” (Idaho has not released any public data on score outcomes; this will be the first year it will be released after students test in spring).

Vice versa, the big stick approach of holding schools responsible for standardized test scores through withholding dollars and placing schools in Annual Yearly Progress (AYP Jail) has been equally flawed. Schools serving the hardest students, schools with a high percentage of special education, English-language learners, low socio-economic, and “at risk” students were the hardest hit by such a strategy.

In an outcome that surprised precisely zero individuals, those schools working with the hardest students had the lowest scores; an outcome that resulted in the feds withholding money from precisely the schools that desperately needed the most resources to help their students succeed.

6 Months later, now in June, that is still true more than ever. Below is Sen. Crapo’s traveling town hall schedule. Please attend and let him know that until the annual testing mechanism is removed, the Every Child Achieves Act is doomed to have the same failed outcome of No Child Left Behind.

Victoria Young, an incredible Idaho education advocate and author of The Crucial Voice, has some excellent talking points to ask Sen. Crapo and/or share with him during the meetings available on her website.

Please take the time to let Sen. Crapo know, in person, that we can do better for Idaho’s and all of America’s children by saying no to the annual standardized testing mechanism and start putting children over profits.

9:00 AMJerome Presents Spirit of Idaho Award to local veteran Lee Nunnally for his volunteer work to repair a memorial to those who served in Operation Desert Storm. At Jerome’s South Park, 300 E. Main

The following letter was sent out to all members of Idaho’s Lesgiature and members of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission.

The letter asks for tangible action from either the IPCSC or the Idaho legislature to ensure minority services are provided in Idaho’s charters in order to make charter schools a choice for minority families as well.

“Poor management, poor decisions, and poor system functionality compounded themselves and prevented the goals for a statewide instructional management system from being realized,” said Director Rakesh Mohan of the Office of Performance Evaluations. “The net result is that the project has sunk costs of about $61 million, and the Department of Education and the Legislature are left with few options to consider when deciding the future of the program.”

Such was the scathing report issued by Rakesh Mohan, Director of Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluations, to the legislature today on the current state of dysfunction regarding Schoolnet, Idaho’s Instructional Management System. Continue reading →

I was cautious as many districts either continued or implemented new four day school weeks, put bandaids on crumbling infrastructure, and particularly struggled in those minority of districts that have steadfastly opposed levies despite dwindling statewide funds.